The Intention is good

Pressbrief

Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Hamirpur: Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi addressed a huge election rally at Uttar Pradesh’s Hamirpur area in which he slammed the successive non-Congress governments in the state for not working towards development.

While striking a chord with the people of Hamirpur, in Bundelkhand region, Rahul Gandhi said that though the voice of Bundelkhand reach Delhi, it is not being heard at Lucknow. “Your demands are not big. In fact you need to demand more. You must demand more industries in Bundelkhand. You must think big and dream big. We need a government which works for development of Bundelkhand” he said. “The people of Bundelkhand are crying loud but no one listens to them. The voice of Bundelkhand reaches Delhi but it is not being heard in Lucknow” added Rahul Gandhi.

I have a long relationship with Bundelkhand. When you were passing through a bad time, I had come to you and Central government had sanctioned a financial package of Rs. 3000 crore for Bundelkhand. But could you get any benefit? No; because the state government here did not allow those funds to reach you. We had sent money for water and wells, but no one benefitted. I had visited Bundelkhand even after the Centre sanctioned the financial packages. The people there complained that they could not get the relevant financial assistance for constructing the wells and they were in deep trouble.

There is scarcity of water here in Uttar Pradesh. Rajasthan too has the same difficulty. But there is a Congress government in Rajasthan but here in UP, SP and BSP have been in power for the past 25 years. You ask anyone in Rajasthan about the development taking place there. We are building a Delhi – Mumbai corridor now. We are planning for more rail connections and dedicated railway lines. But we cannot develop only by railway lines. We are extending all our possible help for building railway lines and other infrastructure. But State govt’s cooperation is also necessary. We need to work more if we need real growth. Till your state government is taking positive measures towards development, Bundelkhand cannot move forward.

Let me tell you an example. We are planning an industrial corridor across Delhi-Mumbai connecting Rajasthan. It is the people of Rajasthan who will be benefitting the most by this in the coming five years. Rajasthan will become the industrial hub and lots of people will benefit with jobs. It is difficult to bring in industries on agricultural lands as there can be problems of land acquisition. But such problems are rare in alkaline land. That is what we witnessed in Noida and Bhatta-Parsaul. Since lands in Rajasthan are alkaline, we are aiming to set up industries there. Same can be done in Bundelkhand too so that people from there can stop migrating to other cities for jobs. We need more development in Bundelkhand.

Your demands are not big. In fact you need to demand more. You must demand more industries in Bundelkhand. You must think big and dream big. We need a government which works for development of Bundelkhand. We need to make Bundelkhand a Bangalore. Bangalore is said to be the IT city now. When Rajiv Ji initiated IT revolution, people had laughed at him. But he was determined. Now you can see how Bangalore has transformed. I want same thing to happen in Bundelkhand also. We need to connect Bundelkhand with big countries like America.

Congress ideology is not based on any particular caste or religion. Our vision is the vision of Indians. Opposition also talks about development. But UPA built three times more roads than NDA in five years. We also want roads, railway lines and airports but at the same time our ultimate aim is to empower the people also alongwith development. Congress aims to empower the women and the youth. What did we do in the past ten years. We gave the people the right to job. Lakhs of people could avail its benefits and we guaranteed minimum of 100 days jobs to the rural poor. Opposition talks loud about corruption. But who enacted RTI Act? It was the Congress.. RTI acts as a powerful tool to fight corruptions. The decisions which were taking behind closed doors can now be in public domain. Anyone can get information about government decisions. RTI ensures transparency in public administration.

We have now implemented Food Security Bill. The women here know very well what do they feel when their kids are hungry. Now we guarantee that no one in our country would live hungry. Every poor is now guaranteed with food grains at Rs. 1 per kilo gram. We had to fight long to make this a reality. Opposition ridiculed this historic bill. BJP leaders told that such a bill is useless.

Uttar Pradesh is going to get maximum benefits out of this Food Security Bill, but the state government here says that it will not implement this till the next general elections. Will the people of Uttar Pradesh feel hungry only after elections? Please put pressure on state government to implement this Bill. Food Security is your right now.

Wherever I go I meet a lot of youth there from UP– whether in Delhi or Mumbai. Before coming to power the Samajwadi Party had made lots of promises to you. They promised you jobs. But did they fulfil those? No. The youth in UP wish to put in their hardwork for country’s development but they are not able to secured one.

If you need jobs you need infrastructure. Central government sends huge money for development but those funds are vanished here. If you want proper development in UP, you need a Congress government here. Once you have a Congress govt here, you can see the development like you see in Rajasthan , Maharashtra, Kerala and Delhi.

We want to transform Uttar Pradesh. This is the biggest state in India. The youth here has tremendous potential and power but it is being wasted. There is no proper health and educational facilities here and you are forced to go out. There are no proper roads. You voted a SP Govt to power and you have a young Chief Minister. But still there is no development. The people of Bundelkhand are crying loud but no one listens to them. The voice of Bundelkhand reaches Delhi but it is not being heard in Lucknow.

The farmers in Bundelkhand were struggling in 2009. We heard your voice and we waived off loans of poor farmers across the country. We empowered the farmers; we opened the doors of the banks for them. We extended all our possible help for the people of Uttar Pradesh.

Our dreams are big. We want to make Bundelkhand self reliant. We want to empower the youth here. We need to make this region as an industrial hub. We want to work more. You have a Congress MLA here but he does not get help from Lucknow as we do not have a Congress government in UP.So strengthen the hands of Congress and we will transform Bundelkhand.

About Me

The site, pressbrief.in, is a veritable treasure house of videos, audios and rare photographs featuring the Gandhis. You can surf the site all the way back to Jawaharlal Nehrus the light has gone out of our lives speech. You can rewind to the rivetting 1999 Lok Sabha campaign in Rae Bareli, when Priyanka Vadra ferociously attacked Arun Nehru, calling him a backstabber. And you can watch all of Priyanka and Rahuls current campaign footage.